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“I’m not going anywhere, Shnookems.” My joke doesn’t land, and she walks out without another word.

A soft meow from behind my head on the arm of the couch and a tickle of fur against my forehead is a welcome presence. Midnight paws at a strand of my hair.

“Hey, buddy.” He purrs in response. “Let’s hope I didn’t just scare your mother away.”

CHAPTER 25

CELINE

"Luna!”

I burst into Bean Hive with none of the grace and stealth Zavier asked me to. The woman in question halts what she’s doing behind the bar when I yell her name. She must sense my panic because she apologizes to the customer she’s helping, handing off the mug she’s holding to another employee, and rushes over.

Luna’s blonde hair waves behind her and I'm hit with a cloud of her delicate perfume when she stops in front of me.

“Celine, what’s wrong?” Her eyebrows furrow and I glance around noticing all the patrons staring at me after my outburst. “Is it something with work?”

“Actually, I’m off but my vacation time just took a turn for the worst. Come here,” I hiss, and grab her arm, dragging her into the supply closet behind the bar.

“What’s going on? You’re scaring me.” She crosses her arms over her chest and peers imploringly into my eyes.

“I’m scaring you?” Her comment strikes me as funny after everything that just happened. “A man just bled out, almost to death might I add, on the floor in front of me and now has mehere to request blood.To drink.” The last two words leave in a barely audible gust of air.

Luna’s eyes grow big as saucers at my words. “Zavier? Is he okay?”

“How’d you know?”

“Oh, girl, he is downbadfor you. Who else could it be?” She’s already rummaging around in a fridge hidden behind a shelf full of different syrups and coffee cups. “What trouble did he get himself into? If he sent you here, it must’ve been bad. Gosh, he better pull through or we’ll have to deal with him haunting us, I’m sure.”

I sputter at how casual she’s acting. “How are you okay with this? I’m certainly not!” My level of hysteria is slowly rising. “Are you in kahoots? In some weird ass cult where you drink blood? Zavier wouldn’t give me any answers.”

Luna stops what she’s doing to give me a pitying glance. “If Zav hasn’t told you yet, then it’s not my story to tell.” She casually holds multiple blood bags and closes the fridge, setting them in a small portable cooler. “Here. You need to get back to him with these as soon as possible. If he’s injured, he’s going to need these and the sooner the better.”

Shooing me out of the closet and toward the front door she gives me one last sad smile. “Just hear him out, Celine. I know it all sounds fake and downright insane, but it’s real. He genuinely likes you so don’t do anything rash. There’s so much about the world that none of us really know and now you’re getting to see a side of that very few humans ever have the curtain pulled back on.”

I give her a hesitant nod and high tail it back to the apartment. I have a multitude of questions for her, it’s in my nature, but there’s something tugging at me telling me I have to go.

“I’m here!” The front door slams against the wall as I throw the keys down and rush inside. “Zavier, you better not be dead! I haven’t gotten to interrogate you Detective Brennan style yet!” A low, weak wheeze sounds from the living room, and I let out a breath I didn’t realize I was holding.

“I haven’t gotten to go down on you yet, how could I pass away?” he questions, and I marvel at his ability to be flirty even in the state he’s in now.

Unzipping the cooler and yanking out two of the blood bags I jog over to his prone form on the couch.

“Here.” Thrusting it in his face when I rip the cap off, he grabs it and slurps down the crimson liquid.

“That hits the spot.” He licks his lips. “AB negative is my favorite. Luna must be feeling bad for me.” Zavier chuckles and swallows another mouthful of the bag to finish it off. “I’m gonna owe her big time.”

Wordlessly he motions for the other bag and does the same thing. Each suck brings color back to his pale skin and it’s like his once gaunt face is full of life and warmth again. He drinks the other two bags I have in the cooler before finally thudding back against the couch with a relieved sigh. Long fingers push the blanket aside to reveal perfectly smooth skin where there once were nasty wounds. Not even a scar is left behind.

“How is that possible?” I murmur and back away, thumping clumsily to the floor in disbelief. In my rush to help Zavier and get him more blood, my adrenaline has kept me going until now. I didn’t give myself time to question what was going on, but now that immediate danger is out of the way I’m back to a state of what in the fuckery is this. Zavier must realize the predicamenthe’s in because his eyes dart to mine and we stare at each other in silence, neither knowing what to say next.

“Might as well rip the bandage off.” He runs a hand through his red hair much like the color of the blood he was just downing. “I’m a vampire.”

I wait for him to say more but he doesn’t. No punchline to the joke, no ha I got you, Celine. He saysnothingelse and sits there waiting for me to reply to his ridiculous statement.

“A vampire,” I reply in a deadpan voice. He nods. “I vant to suck your blood ... kind of vampire?”

Zav rolls his eyes at that one.